Astronaut is First to Specifically Contribute to Wikipedia From Space

Millions of people from around the world enjoy the massive wealth of information that is made available by Wikipedia – and now, someone from out of this world has also shown their love for the online encyclopedia too.

Astronaut Paolo Nespoli just contributed the first piece of content that was every created specifically for Wikipedia from space.

Nespoli, who is an Italian astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA), submitted a sound clip of his voice from aboard the International Space Station that is revolving around the Earth at 17,227 mph (27,724 kilometres per hour).

According to a blog post published by the online encyclopedia, the submission was part of an ongoing project launched by Wikipedia to populate articles on celebrities and individuals with sound bytes of the person saying their own name. This allows readers to hear the name’s exact pronunciation, and it gives them a chance to familiarize themselves with the star’s voice.

Since the organization came up with the idea in 2012, a team of volunteers have been collecting sound bytes of people’s names in over 24 different names. Nespoli transmitted an audio clip of himself saying his name in English and Italian.

A dedicated group of employees at the ESA were then able to receive the transmission and disclose it to Wikipedia for free use under the Creative Commons license.